Today marks one week since we landed on foreign soil. I wish I could say this first week has been a crazy adventure (and, of course, in some ways it has been) but actually this week has felt *almost relaxing. The weight of hoping and praying that we’ll get through every obstacle to get through the boarders is gone. The stress of working hard, packing up our lives and meeting family expectations is behind us. We’re finally where we set out to be.
We’ve been waking up around 9:30 these last few days and only leaving the house around 1pm. These slow mornings are something we gave up in the hustle to get here — and are quite welcomed. We’re usually back in the house before it gets too cold and spend the evenings watching Brooklyn 99 on our South African Netflix account, until we’re utterly bored and send ourselves to sleep. It’s been nice.
But the days feel incredibly long, with no real purpose to wake up to.
We’re praying for work. We were told that getting a low-wage job would be easy here but after handing out my CV to four different places, with no call in return, I’m not feeling optimistic. It cost €2.40 to get 5 black and white CVs printed and €2 for a bus ride to the town where I can do it. The truth is that the money is scary. It took us a year, a car and 10 months’ worth of rent to afford to come over here (excluding the money we received as gifts) and it feels like it’s dripping out of our fingers.
Money just doesn’t equate here. It’s not worth trying to exchange it in your mind, because the way things are priced just don’t make sense and it simply is more expensive to live here. We need to earn euros, and quickly. Kendal got an appointment for his stamp 4 (the stamp we need to get for him to stay and work here) but the earliest they had is March the 13th. Nevermind the fact that that’s a whole month after we have guaranteed accommodation, it’s also nearly 2 months that Kendal can’t work while we’re here. Even if I do get a job, our savings will become the extra salary we just won’t have.
I wish had more rest in God’s provision. I was even reminded on Wednesday (at a small group gathering at The Church) that God is generous. He has promised to take care of us.
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” Matthew 6:25–27
So I must choose to let it into His hands. El-Shaddai, God who is able.
In other news, our time is filled with ‘firsts’, first Irish-restaurant reviews, first look at famous Cathedrals, first time taking the wrong bus, first time walking into a pub, first time video calling family from another country. (If you’re wondering if I’m home sick — the answer is that I’m not sure actually. I’m a bit sad all the time and I feel like I have no one to talk to, but that might also just be because we really don’t know anyone here. Maybe what I really miss is knowing people).



Some of the most difficult things to adjust to here are:
1. The sun rising late and setting early
2. Finding a reason to get up and about in the mornings
3. Food that is supposed to taste the same but really doesn’t (why does Coke taste so different here?) We haven’t found a single thing that tastes like South Africa.
I know that we’re capable of adjusting and the excitement of new-ity is so much more than fear-of-loss. It will take us some time. And that’s okay. It’s only been a week.
Thanks again for reading, dear viewers.
With love, from Dublin
Cheylin
0 Comments